


Learning to be Selfish

by dragyn42



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-15
Updated: 2009-12-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 01:29:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragyn42/pseuds/dragyn42
Summary: In Harry’s sixth year, the Ministry tries to bolster international friendship with another TriWizard Tournament.





	Learning to be Selfish

**Author's Note:**

> Exchange: puffysubmariner 2009 Secret Santa  
> Recipient: miasmic
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this (even if my muse was being a bit flighty.) There are several elements of this that I’ve not really worked with before, so thank you, giftee, for the prompts that encouraged me to try this. Also, many thanks to katwoman_68 for her own patience with my frequently absent muse and her quick turnaround.

“I don’t know what to do, Ginny,” Harry vented. “I’m sick of this. The constant disbelief and ridicule. I’m just...”

“I know, Harry,” consoled Ginny with her arm around his shoulder. She was sitting next to him on the sofa, close enough that her entire side was pressed against him. She could feel the tension, the anger coursing just under the surface.

She felt for Harry, she really did. In the past year, he lost his godfather; his mentor – the vaunted Headmaster Dumbledore – admitted that he had been playing with his life, trying to teach him, very badly, the meaning of love; he was thrown into a contest he wanted nothing to do with; and lastly, and probably most hurtfully, his best mate was ignoring him, his other best friend caught in the middle.

Ginny’s own situation wasn’t much better. She had harbored ill feelings towards Dumbledore since her first year. She felt that he should have known. She knew there was no way he could have, Tom had made her hide her tracks too well, but some childhood resentments just didn’t die. After what the headmaster revealed to Harry at the end of last year, her own anger reasserted itself.

Add to that her failed relationship with Dean – he seemed to think she was some delicate flower, despite her known participation on the ministry raid the previous year, not to mention he was one of the students who assumed Harry purposely entered the tournament – and her year wasn’t going well, either. 

A few weeks previous, they announced the new TriWizard Tournament. It was supposedly to bolster international support and cooperation in face of Voldemort’s return, especially after the success of the tournament two years prior, but the truth was Fudge wanted to remove as much attention as he could from his failure at admitting the Dark Lord had returned. Especially since the original witness was kidnapped from Hogwarts out from under the noses of all the officials during the last tournament.

The rules were the same, and only seventh year students could enter, but when they announced the new TriWizard Champions, Harry’s name came out for Hogwarts, despite his age.

As was the pattern at the school, all of the students instantly disbelieved his protests that he didn’t want anything to do with the tournament. He had enough on his agenda without worrying about dying from a silly competition. Even worse, one of his best friends didn’t believe his innocence and his other best friend was caught between them.

When Ron told off Harry in the middle of the common room the night of the selection, Ginny likewise told off Ron. She railed at him for being a stupid prat, too stuck in his own insecurities to actually listen to his best mate and consider if entering the competition, especially without telling Ron first, was something Harry would do. Ron, however, was listening to none of it.

In the end, Ginny had cursed him and dragged Harry back out of the common room. They spent the next several hours talking. It was the most they talked at one time since they had known each other.

Over the next few weeks, while Ron was ignoring Harry, Hermione doing her best not to upset either of them (which consequently meant she spent a lot of her time in the library away from either of them,) and the rest of the school booing him in the halls, Harry and Ginny spent a lot of time with each other.

“I don’t know what’s worse, Ginny,” Harry continued. “That I still have no idea what the First Task is going to be, or that I’m pretty sure no one is going to be cheering for me. I mean, it’s not like I really _want_ the attention, but I don’t want to stand out there, doing whatever it is I need to do, and possibly die in front of everyone else just staring at me, waiting for me to fail.”

“Not everyone will be staring, Harry. I’ll be cheering, even if I’m the only one,” comforted Ginny, leaning in even closer, allowing Harry to feel her breath on his ear.

Harry turned his head to look at Ginny. This close, he could count freckles across the bridge of her pert nose – how was it he never noticed how cute her nose was before? Her brown eyes shone, and he knew there was no deception in them, not at this moment. The pair had spent the last several weeks around each other constantly, hiding from friends, housemates and exes, and in all that time Harry hadn’t seen her as more than a friend. Currently, she was probably his best friend to be sure, especially after the row with Ron, but just a friend.

He wasn’t so sure about that now. This close, he could see what had been in front of him the whole time. In Ginny’s eyes, he could see the emotion. She was showing him things, things she had kept hidden thus far. He could see what she really felt, and why she wouldn’t show him. It was all there, right in front of him.

“Ginny,” he whispered, well... croaked was more like it.

“It’s okay, Harry.” It was gone, only his friend remained. “With everything that’s happened, everyone turning on you, you needed to know that one person would always stand by you, no matter what. And I will, Harry. No matter what.”

The anger drained from him. It didn’t really seem to have a place at the moment. Instead, there was confusion.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because, it was the last thing you needed, at least now. You have too much else going on, Harry. So, I’ll support you, unconditionally, and when you’re ready, I’ll be here.”

“You are here. You’ve been here. I guess I’ve just been so caught up in my own stuff...”

“No, Harry. It’s okay, really.”

Harry started at Ginny, his green eyes boring into her brown. He found he _wanted_ that look to come back. He had been angry, and now he wasn’t. The look, that feeling, he had never felt it before. He had never seen that kind of emotion for him before.

Moving his head forward, he watched Ginny, waiting to see if she reacted. Something flashed in her eyes – he couldn’t tell what, it was too quick – but she didn’t react otherwise. He leaned in toward her, and still there was no reaction. He tilted his head, and he heard the intake of breath.

When his lips touched hers, it was like nothing he had felt before. Not just the physical contact, either. He had kissed Parvati after the Yule Ball during the last TriWizard Tournament. It had been a pleasant evening – even if Ron spent the evening sulking over Hermione and Victor and ignoring Padma – and Parvati and he shared a pleasant kiss at the end of the evening. Pleasant.

There had been the disastrous kiss with Cho the previous year. She had taken to flaunting her boyfriend’s status as the TriWizard Champion, causing Cedric to dump her. She later decided that if Harry, The-Boy-Who-Lived was good enough to teach everyone behind Umbridge’s back, then he might be worth her while. Ron had encouraged Harry to give it a try, but after a failure of a date at Madam Puddifoot’s, Cho had tried to make up with Harry by kissing him after a D.A. meeting. She had been crying, appealing with him to stay with her. The kiss had been, wet, very wet. And not at all pleasant.

This kiss, though. Harry felt he hadn’t kissed anyone before. The physical sensations were nice, pleasant, but there was a feeling behind it. A need for more. He wanted, from just this one, tentative kiss, to keep Ginny here with him. The kiss let him know she wasn’t going anywhere.

There was a noise, and Harry and Ginny pulled apart. Not suddenly as if surprised, just... apart. They stared into each other’s eyes and Harry felt like something that was missing wasn’t anymore. It was like nothing he could explain, he had no reference for the feelings.

It was then that he noticed the source of the noise; Ron was making his way through the common room. All the anger that Ginny had magically taken away came bubbling back like a wellspring. Ginny sighed and gripped Harry’s elbow between them in support.

Ron stopped next to the sofa and glared at the pair – obviously still angry – and opened his mouth. Anyone could have told him that he was simply asking for trouble.

“If you even _begin_ that thought,” warned Ginny, “the school will be returning pieces of you to Mum.”

His mouth snapping shut, Ron turned on his heel and stomped like a child throwing a tantrum, marching out of the room.

Harry never took his eyes off of Ginny. He had no desire to look at his former best mate, and desire pretty much covered what was quickly replacing his anger once more. She had shown herself a devoted friend these past few months, but the fire he saw in her now...

Ginny met his gaze and smiled. “Not now, Harry. You need to be ready for the task tomorrow. Go, sleep. When it’s over, well...” She kissed him on the lips. It lingered for a moment, definitely more than a simple good night kiss. “Good luck, Harry.”

He watched her walk over to and up the stairs to the girls dorms. He hadn’t spent a whole lot of time watching Ginny previously, so he couldn’t be sure, but he thought there might have been a swing to her hips that wasn’t usually there.

“That wasn’t your usual ‘good night,’” came a familiar voice. He tore his gaze away from the now empty staircase and looked up at his oldest best friend that was still talking to him. She had a knowing smile on her lips, but her eyes projected worry. “It seems you’ve finally seen what’s in front of you.”

“She kind of shoved it there. But that’s not why she did it.”

The smile slowly faded. “No, I imagine not.” She sat down next to Harry before she continued, “Are you ready for tomorrow?”

“Ready for what? I have no idea what’s going to be happening. I think Hagrid was going to try and tell me, but Dumbledore somehow managed to keep him away from me anytime I wasn’t in his class.”

Hermione huffed. She was irked at the headmaster’s activities of late. She of course knew everything he had told Harry at the end of the previous year, and she couldn’t understand why he didn’t try to publicly clear Harry’s name to the school. Of course, she also figured he had some greater plan and meant nothing malicious by his inaction.

Smiling briefly at Hermione’s reaction, he continued, “So, even though I’m sure Giselle and Andrei have already found out – they didn’t look as worried as usual today – I have no idea what it is I need to be ready for!”

“Harry, you know more spells than most seventh years, and you know them well enough to teach. Just keep relaxed, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the happy feeling that Ginny had evoked in him. “You’re right – a usual. I think I’m going to get some sleep.”

“Good night, Harry.”

As worried as he was, he still managed to fall asleep only a few minutes after he got into his bed.

* * *

If he was worried last night, he was extremely apprehensive now. Ginny wasn’t at breakfast to help him with his nerves. Ron continued to glare at him – and even made a few nasty comments without his sister there – and Hermione only smiled at him, still sitting apart. Under the accusing glares of the rest of the school, he ate what little breakfast he could stomach. And then Bagman rose from the head table.

“If the three champions would please follow me out to the field of trial, the rest of the spectators can follow the school staff and tournament officials to the seating area!”

Harry, Giselle and Andrei followed Ludo Bagman towards the Quidditch pitch, which was now surrounded by thirty foot hedgerows, and into a waiting tent. It looked similar to the one Harry remembered seeing before the first task two years ago.

“You will be battling creatures with a class five rating by the Ministry of Magic. Obviously, you will not be expected to subdue them, but you will be expected to get around them, or otherwise avoid them, to complete the task. As bonus, there will be something in the middle of the field. If you manage to bring it with you to the exit on the other side, you will get a reward before the next task that will help you greatly.

“We won’t be telling you what the creature you will be fighting is until you exit the tent before you enter the field. At that point, you will be perfectly free to decline continuing. You will, of course, also not receive any points or the bonus.”

They drew lots and Harry ended up going second. Bagman had left them to sit nearly twenty ago, and Harry’s thoughts through that time were what brought on Harry’s new anxiety. It wasn’t so much the creatures, or the likely possibility of impending death. No, it was Ginny’s absence.

He remembered the second task from the first TriWizard Tournament. The Ministry had taken people and hidden them at the bottom of the lake, in the care of the merfolk. Harry was pretty sure Ginny’s absence was related to the bonus task – she was the only person he had spent any significant time with recently, she would be the obvious choice. And he was also sure there were no merfolk to protect her against a class five dangerous creature.

Finally, they called Andrei through the door-flap. A few moments after, they heard the announcement, “Andrei Andronov has chosen to compete in his first task: a Manticore!”

Giselle gasped and paled. Harry thought that perhaps he was wrong about their knowing the task. Or perhaps she did know and knew what the remaining choices were. That second thought was more frightening. Especially when he took Ginny into account.

Nearly half an hour later, a voice cried out Andrei’s completion of the task. Then Harry was called out.

He was standing in front of a reinforced door in the hedge. How they expected a hedge to contain class five creatures he wasn’t sure, but Bagman stood there, confident and sure with a slip of paper in his hand.

“Well, Harry. Are you ready?” Without waiting for an answer, he plowed on, “Good! Now, you will have to face...” He made a great show of opening the paper. It was then that Harry realized he couldn’t hear any cheering at all. Nor did he when he was in the tent. Obviously Bagman could be heard by the spectators, and in the tent when he chose, but the contestants were at the auditory mercies of the officials.

“You are facing... a Basilisk.” This time, he did wait for a moment. “So, will you attempt the task?”

Harry honestly considered declining, but then it hit him. A Basilisk. Ginny. How the hell could Dumbledore let that happen? All the anger he had been experiencing roared to the front of his awareness, and he glared as Bagman actually took a step backwards while watching him.

“Yes.” The coldness in his voice scared even him.

“Ve... Very well then.” With his wand to his throat, Bagman announced less than steadily Harry’s intention on facing the King of Serpents.

The door creaked open and Harry entered the pitch. He barely made out the stands above the hedges, and it looked like there were charms in place to limit the view out from the inside. Harry realized they probably also helped prevent the monsters from getting out.

Taking stock of the state of the field, he saw trees, rocks, boulders and piles of rubble scattered all over the field. He was trying to determine the best path through when he heard a hissing noise off to his left. Fighting every instinct he had not to look, he ran to the right and looked to find Ginny.

As promised, in the middle of the pitch was a tall metal structure. Nearly thirty feet high, Harry figured it was high enough to keep the ‘bonus’ out of the way of danger. That meant the serpent was not as large as the one he previously fought. And at the top, tied to a post, was Ginny, a blindfold over her eyes, her skin pale, and she was shaking.

 _She’s not spelled!_ he realized. She was conscious, and she knew there was a Basilisk around.

With no further thought to his own safety, he ran headlong towards the tower, pushing his legs as hard as he could. He heard a pile of rubble collapse to his left and knew the snake was getting closer. He leapt up the tower, jumping as high as he could, and grabbed a hold of a crossbeam support. He then worked at climbing the tower, making his way as quickly as he could to the top while the tower itself shuddered. The serpent must have been at the bottom.

He finally reached the top platform and instantly cast spells to release Ginny, though he left her blindfold on. He pulled her into his arms and she let out a sob.

“He... He told me I had to. That it had to be voluntary. I knew Ron wouldn’t, and I didn’t know about Hermione. But he wouldn’t tell me what it was. I didn’t know. I thought I would be safe!”

Harry didn’t need to ask who ‘he’ was. “You are safe. I’ll get us out of here.”

Ginny nodded and steadied herself, straightening in Harry’s embrace.

“How will we get out of here? I don’t have a wand,” asked Ginny.

Looking around, and careful not to actually look down, it came to him that this was the Quidditch pitch. From there, it seemed obvious what he needed to do.

“You trust, me, right?”

“You know I do, Harry.”

“Okay... _Accio Firebolt!_ ” he cried.

“How... How do you expect that to work? You broom is back in the castle, isn’t it?”

“Just wait,” he said. “It’s something Hermione and I were working on last year when preparing for the D.A. She wanted to test out distances and specific applications when calling by name – or something like that. It’s Hermione.”

Ginny actually let out a laugh.

“Good, that’s what I wanted,” smiled Harry. “Any moment now.”

Sure enough, even though Ginny couldn’t see it, Harry’s Firebolt came soaring through the protective spells and the handle smacked into his hand. As it did, though, the tower rocked and the platform shifted nearly a foot sideways.

“Damn, it must be attacking the base,” said Harry. “We don’t have time.”

He tried to get Ginny onto the broom, her blindfold still in place for her safety, when the platform gave way, separating from the support structure and falling to the ground. Harry had one hand on the broom and the other on Ginny’s wrist, her sudden stop nearly pulling out his shoulder, the broom holding them both thirty feet in the air.

“Climb, Ginny!” grunted Harry. “Climb to the broom!”

He felt Ginny pull herself up, grasping at his pant legs, and eventually getting a good grip on his waist. Harry was now able to pull himself up enough to grab the broom with his other hand while Ginny finished her ascent. Once she was straddled over the broom, something she didn’t need to see to accomplish, Harry pulled himself up behind her.

Not looking down for fear that the Basilisk was probably looking up at him, he still managed to see the snake rear up in his peripheral vision. He hadn’t actually seen the snake, so he didn’t know how big it was, but as his last encounter with a Basilisk was one of nearly sixty feet in length, he knew this one might easily be able to reach him.

Harry pointed his wand down at the towers and cast a series of Exploding jinxes. The tower groaned before giving way and falling sideways. As far as Harry could tell without looking, it fell in the direction he thought the Basilisk was. But either way, he didn’t care. The spells were only supposed to be a distraction.

Rocketing off, Harry flew at the broom’s top speed to the door at the exit. Luckily, someone on the other side appeared to have the capacity for thought, something Harry was doubting anyone involved with the running of the tournament had, and the door opened before he got there.

He shot through without slowing down.

Once he cleared the charms, he was assaulted by the thunderous sound of cheering. Ludo Bagman’s voice then rose above the unassailable noise.

“In an amazing ten minutes, Harry Potter has not only disabled the Basilisk, but rescued his bonus task as well! Congratulations!!”

Harry had landed the broom by this point and, on shaking legs, helped Ginny off the broom and removed her blindfold. As he turned around, Headmaster Dumbledore was standing, apparently waiting to talk with him.

“Congratulations, Harry. And might I say what an excelle...”

“No, sir,” Harry cut him off. “You may not say.”

“Pardon me?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, either.” Harry glared at the elder wizard before completing his accusation. “You knew.”

“Come now, I had no way of know which creature you would fac..”

“You _knew_ that Ginny would be put in harm’s way, and that it might be a Basilisk! What were you thinking?! Did her welfare ever cross your mind?! No, don’t answer that. I’m pretty sure by now that an individual’s welfare rarely bothers you as long as _most_ everyone is safe.”

“Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!” came a sharp cry that Harry had never been more glad to hear. “ _What_ in the name of Merlin did you think you were doing?!”

Molly Weasley barged her way through the line of officials intended to keep spectators away from the champions and she began to rail at Dumbledore.

“Come on, Harry, this could take a while,” said Ginny. Harry could hear the shaking underneath her otherwise strong voice.

As they walked towards the finish tent where Madam Pomfrey was to look them over, they were intercepted by Ron who had apparently been waiting for him.

“Harry, mate, I...” he stumbled. “I’m sorry. I know you would never have...”

“You know? You know now? Or you knew before?”

“I... I knew before, but I just didn’t think...”

“No, Ronald, you didn’t,” spat his sister. “You never think before you act. Harry needed his friend, and you weren’t there.”

“I’m sorry! Okay?!” he cried out.

“No, it’s not okay,” glared Harry. “You, by your own admission, knew I would never want to do this. You _chose_ to believe otherwise. You _chose_ to turn against your friend when I needed you. Frankly, right now, I don’t really care about making you feel better from your mistake – your _choice_. There’s only one Weasley I’m worried about comforting right now, apparently my only friend from the family still in this school.”

Ron stared dumbfounded and hurt at the pair as they stepped by him and into the medical tent where all the surrounding sounds disappeared once more.

A quick pass by Madam Pomfrey’s wand over each of them, and a minor spell to Harry’s shoulder that caused the ache he hadn’t even realized was there to go away, and they were declared fit and ready to go.

“You can go to the stands to watch, or there are private rooms over there where you can collect yourselves,” Madam Pomfrey pointed. “There are several rooms, all of which are charmed, Silencing and Imperturbable, so don’t worry if you feel the need to cry or shout. No one will know to think less of you for it. I will alert you when we need you to come out.”

The pair looked at each other and nothing needed to be said. Together, walked to a private, walled off corner of the tent and found themselves together in a simple, comfortable room. There was a tray in the corner with water, juice, fruits and sandwiches. Against the wall, there was a small, cushy looking sofa.

Harry grabbed an apple and sat down on the bench. He watched as Ginny wolfed down a sandwich, “He didn’t even give me enough time for a real breakfast,” and then she came over, snuggling into him.

“Are you okay, Gin?” Harry asked softly.

“I should be asking you that,” she returned, a note of amusement underlying it. “I just stood there, scared out of my mind. I never wanted to feel like that again, but one Basilisk... Anyway, you’re the one who did all the work.”

“You did more than that, Ginny. You had every right to be scared, they tied you up, took your wand, and placed you in a field with a Basilisk! But when it mattered, you did fine. You could have panicked, hung off of me and killed us both. But you kept yourself together and got on the broom.”

“I still can’t believe you summoned that from the castle.” She turned to look up into Harry’s face and fell into his eyes.

She was having difficulty hiding her emotions, still unsettled from the ordeal, and knew the instant Harry found everything she had shown him the night before. What surprised her was that the emotions she saw in response were the same. It wasn’t just humoring her, or infatuation from the time they spent together, or even simple friendship. He had come to care for her deeply. She wondered if he even understood the emotions himself.

Harry didn’t respond. He just sat there, holding onto her, his apple forgotten, staring into her eyes. Finally he moved in and kissed her. It wasn’t the pleasant, not-really-innocent kiss they shared the night before. It was needy. Harry was trying to share with her, and receive from her, as much as he could.

The fear of the task, of her dangerous situation as ‘the bonus,’ the loneliness of her not being there at breakfast, the thankfulness that she was there for him all this time. He pushed all of that into his desperate, passionate kiss.

And Ginny couldn’t help but respond. Her own fear, both from the task and her fear that he would never return her feelings, her joy at him rescuing her from the Basilisk – both times. The happiness that he didn’t reject her and allowed her to be his friend, and possibly more since the champions were named. All of that she returned to him, taking from him the truth that he wanted her, wanted to be with her, and wanted to make her feel better.

She shifted in his arms, turning her body to face his. As their kissing grew more desperate, she pushed against him, causing him to lie back on the sofa and pull her down on top of him. His hands were tangled into her hair, but they stroked their way through and, following his instincts, he was pawing at the back of her robes, trying to pull them up and out of the way to allow them more closeness.

Realizing what he was doing, Ginny sat up on his stomach.

“Are you sure, Harry? You know how I feel, I showed you. I’ll be here for you no matter what, whether this goes further or not. But I don’t want to loose you friendship because you suddenly feel guilty. I couldn’t stand to loose your friendship,” she said.

“I don’t know how I feel,” breathed Harry heavily. “It’s nothing I’ve ever felt before. It’s... I want everything for you, and everything from you. I don’t know how I feel, but I know what I want.

“I want to not care anymore about everyone else hating me. I don’t want to think about ‘the right thing.’ I just want to be selfish. I want you. I want to be happy,” he finished in frustration.

Ginny stared back at him. Harry I-Do-Everything-For-The-Good-of-Everyone-Else Potter wanted to be selfish, and he wanted her. It was oddly the most desperately romantic thing she could think of. In all her fantasies of getting together with Harry, all the ones she gave up to be his friend, she never imagined something so raw, something so right.

She ripped open the front of her robes and yanked her blouse up, exposing the pale, freckled skin of her stomach. Harry watched on in fascination. Ginny made quick work of her bra and tossed it away before attacking Harry’s robes. As with her own, she opened his at the front and pulled up his shirt, exposing his torso to her.

Staring briefly at his smooth, unblemished skin, and defined chest, she lay back upon him, reveling in the increased skin contact. Harry breathed in sharply before she attacked his mouth, her hands grabbing his more disheveled than usual hair. His hands dove under her robes and rubbed against her skin, trying to gain as much contact as he could.

Harry had no idea how long they were like that, passionately, desperately kissing, trying to draw as much from the other as they could, but eventually, the feeling of her breasts pressing, rubbing again his chest caused a pressure to build and he wanted more.

His hands moved from the bare skin of her back to her sides. They caressed the swells of her breasts, and worked their way between their bodies until his hands were fully covering her. He tested their firmness, their softness. He played, pinched and toyed with the clearly stiff nubs at the peaks.

Ginny moaned into his mouth at the new sensations. She cried out in pleasure when he pinched at her, and she became aware of a familiar heat building within her. She knew she wanted more. Grinding her hips into him, she felt his arousal press against her own. The pressure of the rise in his trousers pressed against her in just the right place and pleasure shot through her body.

Likewise, Harry responded by pushing his hips upwards into her. He could feel heat radiating from her through the layers of clothing. He wanted this. He wanted to feel good with her. He wanted to make her feel good.

Rhythmically pushing upwards, Harry matched the motions of his pelvis with the squeezing and caressing of his hands, all the while never separating his mouth from hers. But as the excitement built, and he knew he was going to finish, Ginny pulled her mouth off of his and cried out, her legs pressing into him from the sides, her fingers fisting in his hair. He instantly grasped what was happening and, with one final thrust, came against her.

Ginny went slack, collapsing atop Harry. He freed his arms and wrapped them around her. They lay like that together, relaxed fully for the first time in weeks, for quite a while before they heard Madam Pomfrey's voice.

“Mr. Potter? Miss Weasley? Please come out for the awarding of points. I’ll be dispelling the charms in five minutes, so please get ready.”

“I’m sorry, Ginny. I shouldn’t have been so selfish. I just, I was tir...”

Ginny snickered into Harry cutting him off. “Harry, if that’s you being selfish, you can be selfish anytime we’re together. And don’t you dare apologize for it. You need to do things for yourself more often.”

She smiled as he hugged her, the arms already encircling her squeezing tightly. “Thanks, Gin.”

“I meant what I said last night. I will always be here for you, no matter what. If you need to be selfish with me, do it,” she reiterated.

They quickly redressed, Ginny shoving her bra into her pocket. She also showed Harry several cleaning charms to use on his trousers and her skirt so that, although they were hidden by their robes, they would at least be comfortable.

Together, they made their way back into the main area of the tent, and from there they were guided out onto the pitch. The charms were gone and the three champions and Ginny could now clearly see the packed stands above the hedges.

Dumbledore’s voice sounded out over the din. “Ladies and gentlemen. The judges have come to their decision.”

Harry reluctantly listened to the headmaster and discovered that not only was he the only champion to disable his creature, but also the only one to rescue his ‘bonus.’ As a result, he was in first place.

Ginny and Harry slipped back to the castle, doing their best to avoid all the well wishers, not to mention Mrs. Weasley who was once again dressing down the Headmaster. Ginny knew her mother might be angry over missing the chance to check her over, but she really didn’t care. Harry was more important to her at the moment.

* * *

After dinner found the Gryffindor common room absent its tournament leader – not that that particular fact stopped the rest of the House from partying anyway. Harry’s absence was due to his curling up on a mattress in a classroom-turned-storage room in an unused hallway on the fourth floor of the castle.

Ginny had convinced Harry that first night she cursed Ron that the best way to get away from everyone was to actually get away from them. Much of their time together had been spent wandering the castle, looking for the darkest, dustiest areas, knowing that they would be left alone there. And for the most part, they were.

Until, that is, one night when they tired of walking and ended up in a classroom that looked to have been used for potions at some point long past. As Harry sat on a chair, dust puffed all over the place causing Ginny to break out laughing, which turned to coughing as she inhaled the dust. Harry wondered aloud why the rooms weren’t at least kept clean. The next thing he knew, Dobby arrived with a dozen house elves who were whirling through the room, leaving it spotless before they were gone in the blink of an eye.

It became a game with Harry and Ginny. They would find a broken down, long unused room to relax in and see how long it took for the elves to clean it. They were always led by Dobby, and they always disappeared before either Harry or Ginny could say anything.

The same thing happened this particular evening after the task. Harry wanted nothing to do with his house of – as he termed it – hypocrites. While they hadn’t spurned him as badly as the rest of the school, Ginny was the only Gryffindor, with the possible exception of Hermione, who didn’t believe he was an ‘attention seeking rule breaker.’ He had no doubt that now that he was in the lead, they would want to party and celebrate with him, cleverly ignoring any hurtful comments they might have previously made.

Convincing him once again that it was okay to be selfish and do something – or in this case, _not_ do something – that he wanted, Ginny guided him in the exact opposite direction of the Gryffindor tower once they entered the school. She led him through a series of hallways and staircases until they found themselves in their current accommodations.

Beating his old record of fifteen seconds, Dobby and his army of elves appeared in exactly eight seconds, leaving the room and all its contents dust free. This time, however, Dobby turned and congratulated Harry on his win before snapping his fingers and disappearing. When Harry and Ginny turned around, they gaped at the changes in the room.

Dobby had moved a mattress from a stack mattresses packed into the corner of the room behind several desks and tables, and he had placed it on the floor against a wall, fully made up with Gryffindor sheets. Across from the bed was a small, round table with two chairs, obviously more surplus from this very room. The table was draped in a crisp, white tablecloth and was laden down with food.

“Do you think that sneaky little elf has been spying on us?” asked Ginny, staring at the makeshift bed.

“While it might seem like it, I’m pretty sure the answer is no,” decided Harry. “Looking around, I don’t see anything other than tables, chairs and mattresses. Dobby probably figured the mattress was more comfortable for relaxing than the chairs.”

“But why did he make it up with sheets?”

“Put out a bare mattress? Are you insane? That would be unpresentable; a punishable offense!” The playful sarcasm in Harry’s voice was clear.

Pondering the room, Ginny laughed as she realized Harry was probably right.

They sat at the table and ate the provided dinner, not even coming close to exhausting the amount of food the elf had left for them. Harry finished eating first and spent several minutes happily watching Ginny eat her own meal. He marveled at her hair, the freckles on her face, and wondered as he did the night before how he never noticed her beauty or the way she obviously felt about him.

That lead him to wonder how he actually felt about her. It wasn’t anything he understood as it was a feeling inside of him he had never felt before. She was his best friend, a spot she quickly usurped from her brother. She helped him deal with the emotions that often rampaged through him, insisting that he didn’t need to deal with everything alone. And today, she outright told him that if he wanted to be selfish, he could feel free to do it with her.

In his entire life, he had always felt guilty when he thought of doing something that might be considered selfish. It just seemed... wrong to do something just for him if someone else would be left out, or otherwise unhappy at his actions. He knew what it felt like to be left out and unhappy, and the last thing he wanted to do was make Ginny feel like that. But he didn’t feel guilty with her. He felt happy, he felt...

“Figured it out, have you?” Ginny interrupted his thoughts. She had apparently finished eating and was smiling at him, her lips quirked sardonically in a way he found enticing. It made him want to kiss her again.

“What?”

“Your feelings, you’ve figured them out.”

Harry had no clue how Ginny could have determined what he had been thinking about, even if her conclusion was not entirely correct. “Not really. I mean, I know what you feel, and I want to feel that, too. But I just don’t know how.”

“Yes, you do.” She stared into his eyes and opened herself once more to him. “But it’s okay if you don’t know it yet.”

She stood up and walked over to the mattress and sat down on it, patting the spot next her, inviting Harry over. He obliged and lowered himself next to her. Ginny then pushed on his chest, cause him to fall backwards, lying across the mattress, and she proceeded to curl up next to him, her head on his chest.

“Harry, are you upset with what we did in the tent?”

“What? No!” He was silent for a moment, but then he continued, rambling calmly, “I think it was exactly what I needed. I was angry and excited and it was like second year, only this time I _felt_ something and I just needed to work it out. And I was tired of doing what everyone else wanted and I don’t want to be in this competition and you... you let me...”

She rolled over so that she was now lying atop him. Meeting his slightly surprised stare, she smiled. “So, I know what you need, hmm?”

“Er...”

“And don’t you forget it.” She lowered her head down to his and whispered, “I went to Madam Pomfrey this morning. After last night, I wanted to be sure.”

“What are you...?”

“A potion, Harry. I’m safe.”

With that declaration, she kissed him. Not the soft, new kiss they first shared, nor the desperate, needy kiss from the tent. This was a kiss full of passion. All the emotions she shared with him when she opened herself to his gaze, she poured into the kiss. She wanted him, needed him, and now that he realized he wanted her, too, she wasn’t letting go.

Harry grabbed hold of Ginny, his hands entwining into her hair, holding her mouth against his. Everything she pushed through her kiss, he took. She told him to be selfish, to take want he wanted from her, and he wanted it all. He wanted everything she was giving him, and he wanted it for himself.

With a strong push of his hips, he managed to roll both of them over so that he was now on top. He pulled back and, gasping for breath, asked, “I can take anything?”

“Anything,” she agreed.

He sat up, settling himself over her thighs, and proceeded to rip open her robes. The way in which her blouse bunched underneath her robes left just a sliver of pale flesh showing above her skirt, and the rest of the material was pulled tightly around her figure. Harry’s eyes were draw to her material covered breasts, her buttons straining, the gaps revealing more flesh of the shallow valley between the rises.

Ginny smirked as she noticed where Harry was staring, but the smirk disappeared with a gasp as he settled his hands over her mounds and began a massage. At least, that’s what it felt like to her. The truth was Harry had never, beyond their desperate activities of the afternoon, felt a girl's chest before, and he wanted to. He wanted to cup them, press them, squeeze and test them, and his investigative ministrations were extremely pleasurable for Ginny.

Harry felt it as her nipples hardened under his hands. And he felt a sense of satisfaction when Ginny moaned from the friction of her blouse rubbing against them. Her shaking breath and half lidded eyes drove him to want more. So, he undid the buttons of her blouse, opening it and exposing her beautiful breasts to him.

Now that he had time to focus on it, the feeling of the soft mounds directly touching his skin was amazingly erotic. Ginny apparently agreed as she gasped when he continued explorations on her bare breasts.

Thoughts of conversations overheard flit through Harry’s memory. All the things that boys had bragged of doing, the things Harry would never do because it wouldn’t be right for him to take those liberties, were now available to him. She wanted him to be selfish. He could take what he wanted from her.

He leaned forward and wrapped his lips around a nipple. Licking the firm nub as he squeezed it caused Ginny to cry out, and just when the thought he might have gone too far, her hands grabbed his head and pulled him further into her. The firm yet pliant flesh gave way to him as he continued his oral assault.

While one of his hands was busy with her other breast, he decided to use his free hand to help alleviate the pressure his trousers were causing. He slipped his arm down, rubbing against her skin as he went, until he was able to unbuckle his belt, unbutton his pants and shift his hips. But he almost lost complete control when the tip of his cock, now peeking out of the top of his boxers, rubbed against her stocking clad leg.

Harry was surprised when Ginny moved a hand from the back of his head and used it to grab his wrist – the one that had just come much closer to between her legs. She then placed his hand under her skirt, over her knicker clad center. Then Harry realized that Ginny was telling him he was free to take that, too. It was at that point that what Ginny had been telling him clicked in his head. Anything meant _anything_. She wanted to give herself to him.

He didn’t know if it was considered selfish taking something that was freely given, but he no longer cared. Maybe that’s what Ginny wanted for him.

Pulling off of her breasts, he sat back up and slid further down her body in the process. He pushed her skirt up out of the way and looked at her now translucent knickers. The shape of her sex was very clear, and very tempting. 

Pulling her knickers slowly down her legs, Harry was at the bottom of the mattress when he was done removing them. He took the moment to stand and open his own robes, as well as remove his trousers and boxers. He kicked them to the side and grinned when he caught the look of surprise on Ginny’s face.

“I... I know I’ve seen some of my brothers – it’s hard to live in a house of seven men and not accidentally see something – but I’m pretty sure that’s... I mean... wow.”

If she was trying to stoke Harry’s ego, it worked. He pounced back onto the makeshift bed, causing Ginny to shriek until his mouth muffled the sounds. He reveled once again at the skin to skin contact of Ginny underneath him. He managed to snake his hands under her and hugged her in more closely, attempting to get as much of the contact as he could.

Under his now full erection, he could feel the slickness of her. It was an amazing feeling, nothing like anything he could ever provide himself, no matter the lubrication spell of the month from the wizarding rags Seamus constantly got his hands on and passed around the dorm.

To feel more of the lubricated friction, he began moving his hips, sliding himself across her opening, causing her to increase the intensity of the moaning into his mouth. He couldn’t come up with the words to describe it: sensual, heavenly, perfect – they all paled against the actual experience. And from all accounts, what he wanted to do next was even better.

Ginny must have been able to follow his thoughts, or more likely she simply wanted the same thing. One thrust found him sliding across her, and before his next thrust, he felt her hand wrap around him. Before he knew it, his following movements resulted in him inside her.

He paused when Ginny shrieked into him.

“It... It’s okay,” she gasped. “I knew it was supposed to hurt, but I didn’t think it would be that much. I wanted it over fast...”

Harry pushed in a bit further, but stopped at her hiss.

“Don’t stop. Do what you want: keep going.”

“But, you’re...”

“Move, Harry. Please,” she begged.

Trusting her to know her own body, he followed her instructions and pushed himself, by necessity slowly, the rest of the way in. It truly did feel perfect. There couldn’t possibly be anything in the entire world that felt any better than this did. He was joined with Ginny, and her hot, slick insides clasped at him, held him, massaged him in a way he never dreamed possible.

“Move, Harry,” she whispered again.

So he did. He pulled himself out, feeling the way she clutched him to prevent his exit. But he had no intention of leaving, stopping. When he was almost out, and his angle was right, he pushed himself back in, a bit more strongly than before. Ginny moaned in response.

Harry developed a rhythm, pulling out, thrusting in, savoring the feelings she was causing in him, to him. He motions became faster and her moans became louder, her own tempo matching his. He could feel his impending climax, but he wanted to hold off for Ginny. This was her first time too, and it should be special for her.

But it wasn’t meant to be. As Ginny’s moans turned to shrieks, cute, sharp sounds that Harry wanted to hear her make again, he realized he couldn’t hold back anymore. With a final thrust, he exploded into her, crying out as he did. The pulsing of his release absorbing his entire being for a few short moments of eternity.

And then he was done. He fell forward, covering Ginny with his body as he attempted to catch his breath. He could feel Ginny’s own erratic breathing in the rise and fall of her chest as it pressed up into him. Harry wanted nothing more at that moment than to spend the rest of time as they were, skin to skin, him still inside her, her holding him in.

He may have drifted off, he wasn’t sure, but eventually, he came back to Ginny nibbling on his ear.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hey,” she giggled back at him.

“I’m sorr...”

“Don’t you dare, Harry Potter. That was the best experience of my life.”

“But you didn’t... you know.”

“No, I didn’t. But it doesn’t matter. I got what I wanted.”

“What you...?” Harry didn’t know if it was the post-orgasmic euphoria, or if he would have been just as confused in a normal state of mind.

“Harry, you took what you wanted, right?” He nodded on her shoulder. “Well, it was what I wanted, too. Maybe it was a bit selfish of me as well, but I’ve always wanted you. That you were my first is even better.”

There was silence as he processed what she said.

“You were selfish, and no one got hurt,” stated Ginny. She waited for him to come to the only conclusion.

“No one got hurt,” he repeated.

“No.”

“I can take what I want.”

“Yes.” She knew he was almost there.

“I’m going to take my life back from Dumbledore.”

“Damn straight you are.”

“I’m going to win this tournament, not because I wanted to enter, but because I want to win.”

“I have no doubts of that,” she agreed.

“I don’t care what else happens, but I’m not letting you go. I want you, Ginny. I’m going to keep you. I’m going to make myself _happy_ with you, because it’s what I want.”

“It’s what I want, too, Harry.”

“Thank you, Ginny. Thank you for teaching me to be selfish. I think I’m going to be selfish again.”

Harry started to kiss Ginny again, and felt himself harden inside of her.

The party was long over and the common room empty by the time Harry was done being selfish and they returned to the tower.


End file.
